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Trump’s Border Wall: A Christmastime Clash Is Coming

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There won’t be much holiday cheer on Capitol Hill this year, Politico’s Playbook warns: “Over the last few days, we’ve seen a massive ramp-up of the ‘build-the-wall’ rhetoric from key Hill Republicans -- signaling that the Dec. 7 funding deadline will be a major funding clash over the physical border with Mexico.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said Wednesday that Republicans “are committed to helping the president get wall funding” — and signaled he’d fight to get more than the $1.6 billion the Senate has offered so far, according to Politico.

Those comments came after House Speaker Paul Ryan on Monday said there would be “a big fight” over the border wall funding after the midterm elections, and that he didn’t know how it would turn out. And House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, in line to succeed Ryan as the top Republican in the House, said this week he plans to introduce a bill that would reportedly provide $23 billion to build Trump’s border wall.

Most of the government is funded for all of fiscal 2019, but money for some federal operations, including the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the border, expires on December 7. With Republicans ramping up for a battle and Democrats in no mood to give Trump money for his wall, especially if they win control of the House, the fight could drag on for some time. “[T]he insiders we talk to expect a clash could last weeks,” Politico reports. “The only backstop is Christmas and New Year’s.”

As editor in chief, Yuval Rosenberg oversees all aspects of The Fiscal Times' website and email newsletter. His writing has appeared in publications including BusinessWeek, CNBC.com, CNNMoney.com, Fast Company, Fortune, Newsweek, Money and Time.